Clinton: It was wrong to call half of Trump supporters ‘deplorable’

by Harper Neidig - 09/10/16 2:25 PM ET

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Saturday said she regretted denigrating “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters but stood by her characterization that much of his campaign is “deplorable.”

{mosads}“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong,” Clinton said in a statement.

“But let’s be clear, what’s really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values.”

Clinton was referring to the Republican nominee’s campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, formerly the chairman of Breitbart News.

Clinton went on to slam Trump’s “deplorable” habit of elevating the message of the “fringe bigots” that follow him.

“It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American,” she continued. “So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign.”

At a fundraiser Friday night in New York City, Clinton said half of Trump’s supporters were “irredeemable” and could be categorized as a “basket of deplorables” because of their bigoted views, but that the other half were people who believe that government had “let them down” and deserve empathy.

“As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them,” Clinton said Saturday. “I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’ ”

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton